Last year, when Downhill Battle organized Grey Tuesday (www.greytuesday.org), wewere running a radio. Today that they are launching "Eyes on the Screen", we aredoing a cinema. Call it coincidence, call it the Bit-Torrent Revolution, call itwhat you like. We are anyway very happy to announce that Pirate Cinema Berlin isjoining the campaign and hosting a screening this Sunday. See below for details.

Eyes on the Prize is the most renowned civil rights documentary of all time; formany people, it is how they first learned about the Civil Rights Movement. Butthis film has not been available on video or television for the past 10 yearssimply because of expired copyright licenses. We cannot allow copyright red tapeto keep this film from the public any longer. So today we are making digitalversions of the film available for download. Join us in building a new massaudience for this film: organize or attend a screening in your city, town,school or home.

Sunk by Copyright

So why has Eyes on the Prize been unavailable for the past 10 years? Copyrightrestrictions. For example, the film includes footage of a group of peoplesinging "Happy Birthday" to Martin Luther King. Incredibly, "Happy Birthday" isunder copyright and some rights holders believe that they should be givenlicensing fees if the song appears in any film, even a documentary. (Yes that'scorrect, "Happy Birthday" is restricted under copyright--so if you've ever sungit in a restaurant or a park, you could literally be breaking the law.)

But "Happy Birthday" is just the beginning. Eyes on the Prize is made up of newsfootage, photographs, songs and lyrics from the Civil Rights Movement that aretangled up in a web of licensing restrictions. Many of these licenses hadexpired by 1995 and the film's production company, Blackside, could not affordthe exorbitant costs of renewing them. "Eyes on the Prize" has been unavailableto the public ever since.

How could this happen?

Copyright law has expanded out of control, and its public mission is no longerbeing served. Copyright was originally designed to encourage creativity andinnovation--much like patent law. But for the past 50 years multi-nationalcorporations like Disney and the major record labels have aggressively lobbiedCongress to expand and expand and expand the reach of copyright law. Instead oflasting 20 years and requiring registration (like patents do) copyright hasbecome automatic and now corporate copyrights last 90 years.

In addition to the excessive 90 year copyright, corporations have created alegal environment that effectively strips the free speech rights of documentaryfilmmakers and artists to excerpt copyrighted works for their productions.Nowadays even incidental copyrighted material appearing in a documentary (e.g. atelevision that's visible while people are talking) is being tossed on thecutting room floor because filmmakers are threatened with lawsuits. Copyrighthas become so twisted that it now severely restricts innovation, creativity andspeech rather than encouraging it. In this case, our unworkable copyright lawhas kept "Eyes on the Prize" out of homes and classrooms, depriving us of acrucial historical record.

Last week Lawrence Guyot, a prominent civil rights leader with the MississippiFreedom Democratic Party, told the Washington Post, "This is analogous tostopping the circulation of all the books about Martin Luther King, stopping thecirculation of all the books about Malcolm X, stopping the circulation of booksabout the founding of America... I would call upon everyone who has access to'Eyes on the Prize' to openly violate any and all laws regarding its showing."

So, are these community screenings civil disobedience?

We don't think so at all. The First Amendment and the doctrine of "fair use" canclearly be extended to include the right to distribute a film of such importanthistorical significance as Eyes, when such a film is otherwise unavailable. Thehistory of the Civil Rights Movement is simply too important for us to let itsmost comprehensive documentary languish in copyright purgatory. This BlackHistory Month we're working to ensure as many people as possible have access tothis essential film.

But that doesn't mean that the law shouldn't change. Our present copyrightclearance environment forces filmmakers to pay exorbitant fees and to go throughpiles of paperwork before their films ever see the light of day. Consequently,many works of art will never be released or even attempted and that weakens ourculture and our shared history. We need to move back to the original purpose ofcopyright and find ways to ensure that creativity is supported rather thanunnecessarily stifled. And Congress should positively reaffirm the fair userights of the public... so that "free speech" doesn't just mean the right tohire a lawyer.

How You Can Help

You can be involved with this effort simply by downloading the video and sharingit with your family and your community. You can host a screening or look at thelist of screenings to find one near you. And please tell as many people as youcan about this project; efforts like this succeed because of word of mouth.

About Downhill Battle

Downhill Battle is a non-profit organization based in Worcester, MA that isorganizing Eyes on the Screen. The goal of our organization is to supportparticipatory culture and bring positive change to the music industry. DownhillBattle launched in August 2003 to build a grassroots, public-interest voice forending the corporate record label monopoly and putting culture back in the handsof artists and fans. Our outreach campaigns have reached millions of people andhave helped create a more balanced debate on these issues. To learn more aboutwhat we do, visit our front page and subscribe to our RSS Feed. If you have aquestion or suggestion about Eyes on the Screen, feel free to email us ateyes@downhillbattle.org.